Diasporas Now U.K. Tour 2025-2026: Macrocosmic Futures

About the Open Call

Diasporas Now, in partnership with the V&A, South London Gallery, Spike Island, and Primary, announce an open call for Global Majority artists working in live art for a national tour of commissioned performances under the theme of Macrocosmic Futures. Diasporas Now will commission six performances by Global Majority artists over four evenings at U.K. arts institutions across Bristol (Spike Island), Nottingham (Primary), and London (V&A South Kensington, South London Gallery). The commissions will be selected via national open call by the Diasporas Now judging panel and representatives from the partner institutions. For this open call, Diasporas Now seeks proposals for performances that embody the themes of Macrocosmic Futures, working with live art mediums that span performance art, dance, visual art, and experimental music. Diasporas Now’s 2025-2026 tour theme Macrocosmic Futures combines ancestral practices with new technologies as tools of divination toward preferred futures – rescripting interconnected narratives from the microcosm of our embodied realities to the macrocosm of our political and ecological landscapes. Drawing from the framework of Afrofuturism and speculative fiction, Macrocosmic Futures widens the scope to pan-diasporic, pre-colonial perspectives – how can we relate to ourselves, to each other, and to more-than-human consciousness, when we centre values outside the historical trajectories of colonialism and capitalist extraction? What rituals can we co-create as future ancestors in the face of planetary transformation? Diasporas Now: Macrocosmic Futures is supported by the Arts Council England.

What is Offered

Each of the six selected commissions will be awarded £1,050, including a £300 artist fee for two performances, a £200 research and development stipend, and a £250 travel and accommodation stipend. All artists will be provided AV, production, marketing, and curatorial support between Diasporas Now and partner institutions.

Requirements

Applicants must be living and working in England. All applicants, and at least 50% of collaborations or collectives, must identify as Global Majority. All applicants must be working across mediums suited for live performance, and include proposals of a duration of 20-30 minutes. All applicants must confirm in-person availability for 12 December 2025, and 26 February, 3 June, and 26 June 2026 (each performance will take place on only two of these dates, but event allocation will be decided by the curatorial panel and not by artists’ requests). The application can propose an adaptation of an existing work, or a new performance, relating to the themes of Macrocosmic Futures.

How to Apply

Applications can be submitted via the provided Google Form: https://forms.gle/8E2vTH8YeCoweyx57. The deadline for applications is Monday, 6 October at midnight. Collaborative and collective applications are welcomed, but fees are fixed per application.